


The Wind in Your Daughter's Hair

by hellocatrahere



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death, Childhood, Childhood Memories, No romance fic, What-If, agnès is the best, braev remembers edea growing up, braev sees agnès trying to save her and questions everything he knows, edea dies in their battle with braev, etc etc - Freeform, this is a sad fic im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28520709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellocatrahere/pseuds/hellocatrahere
Summary: Your daughter is born. Her eyes are full of life. When she laughs, you cry; because her heartbeat feels tiny but it is ever so fast, and you know then that she will be strong.(a braev lee pov fic that looks at his relationship with edea, and a what-if scenario where her death makes him question all of his ideals. also touches on how the wind (agnès) has always been present in both their lives.)
Relationships: Braev Lee & Edea Lee, Edea Lee & Agnès Oblige
Kudos: 6





	The Wind in Your Daughter's Hair

**Author's Note:**

> fyi for readers that this is written in second person, with a braev lee pov. centred a lot around edea & agnès though. more notes at the end bc i have a lot to say about this xx

Your daughter is born. Her eyes are full of life. When she laughs, you cry; because her heartbeat feels tiny but it is ever so fast, and you know then that she will be strong. 

Edea is 4. She laughs as her tiny wooden sword hits yours, running circles around you in the meadow. The breeze rustles through her hair as she listens intently to your advice on her form. Her knuckles are white around the sword’s hilt. She tells you she wants to grow up and be a fighter like you. 

Edea is 7. She flies a kite with her mother. You watch the both of them run together, but your heart is heavy. She is thrilled that her mother is out of the hospital, but still too young to understand the severity of her condition. Even now, your wife can barely keep up with her daughter. But she runs anyways, and for just this moment they are together; your family chasing the wind. 

Edea is 16. She is sitting on her window seat with her back to the door when you enter her room. It is a cold winters day, and the wind howls in through her wide open window. Its gusts have torn apart her room, articles scattered across the floor. You understand why she doesn't close her window. The wind screams for her and leaves destruction in its wake. It is what you both feel, waiting for the word on if her mother will make it through the night. Her life is dependant on the earth crystal's magic. You do not know the words to comfort her, so you walk forward to stand beside her in silence. She blinks tears from her eyes. You vow to protect her from what has been prophesied. No vestals or crystals will ever lead her to harm. 

Edea is 18. She stands aboard the airship that is taking off from its berth, beaming as she waves. You stand at the back of the crowd, and you have never felt so much pride. You watch her sail away from home. The wind is what fuels her ship and carries her into the world. 

-

Edea must be 19 now. This crosses your mind only fleetingly as you wait in the council chamber. You’ve been in here for hours, perhaps more, steeling yourself for her arrival. It’s inevitable, this meeting of yours. To you, so is the battle you will surely have. Edea is now daughter and enemy both. 

The chamber doors crash open behind you.

“Father!” 

Nothing on earth could have prepared you for the way she calls out to you. You close your eyes. Slowly, you turn to face the sound of footsteps approaching from behind. 

So these are the four that have caused you so much trouble. 

Edea leads the way to where you stand. You don’t recognize the two men that walk with her. But the other woman... ah. That must be the witch. 

You fear her. She stands guarded, wary; but looks at you with anger. Agnès Oblige has wreaked chaos across Luxendarc, her magic sentencing the world to death. And she has deceived your daughter. As far as you are concerned, she is cruel. The vestal of wind shall not pass. You will not allow her to taint this world’s last crystal.

Edea greets you. She speaks earnestly, full of emotion. You can tell she believes what she’s saying. It’s a shame - you’re not here to be convinced. You are here to show them who is right and who is wrong. 

“Blood and steel are the final resort between those unwilling to concede their beliefs!” 

You barely have time to think as you’re fighting. They’re more than you expected. Between your own concentrated movements, you assess that they work well as a team; stronger than any of them would alone. 

“Stay on the defensive! The defensive!” Edea’s voice is desperate as she yells to her allies. You can read her anger in the way she’s fighting you, but these are still the words she chooses. And to your surprise, her allies listen and begin to hold back. 

But you press harder, and they lose the choice to fight without offense. They’re a whirl of weapons, and they bear numerous asterisks. For the first time, you worry. Perhaps the world will have to be left in Alternis’s hands after all. 

It happens in the blink of an eye. 

The white-haired boy lunges, attacking in a perfectly timed moment of your vulnerability. It would have killed you, surely. It was set up to be a flawless maneuver. 

But before she knows what she’s doing, Edea cries out and swings her light sword in a large arc, disarming her ally. His weapon flies up and lands some feet away. It saves your life by tenths of a second. 

The impact of this doesn’t register to you. Not yet. You are still battling, and you have one goal only, one drive: to defeat your foe. The moment you drew your sword, Edea ceased being your daughter. She exists now as your enemy and nothing else . 

And so, as she stands there in the split second after her decision, realizing the weight of what she’s done, you strike. Your enemy made a mistake and you take advantage of it. In her doubt, her one moment of weakness - you attack with your full might. The swing of your sword is fatal to her hesitation, and her body hits the ground.

The wind vestal screams. 

You stand motionless, frozen in time, as Agnès Oblige runs to the girl lying on the floor. Your hands still grip your sword. It takes you a few moments to discern between enemy and offspring. The girl lying in the vestal’s lap is your daughter. 

Edea is 19, and the vestal of wind is crying. She casts healing spell after healing spell, sobs rising in her voice. She begs Edea to open her eyes. 

Your vow shatters like a crystal. 

You had thought... you had hoped to protect her from what this world was doomed for. The vestals would use the crystals to bring destruction to the universe. They were not be trusted. They were... they’re to be feared, they put everyone at risk - 

But you were wrong. You are the one who has led her to harm. Your mistake is irreversible. 

Your sword falls from your hands. You don’t hear it hit the ground. 

Your sworn enemy lies weeping over your daughter’s body. It was you who killed Edea. It is the vestal who mourns. This is not how it was supposed to be. What had she said? That it was _you_ who endangers the world. She had been right... the real danger must lie with you. And if it lies with you, it lies with the duchy. 

It should have been you. It was _supposed_ to be you fighting for her, saving her; mourning her, if it came to that. You were supposed to protect your family and save the world. It seems the vestal had the same idea. 

How long have you upheld these ideals? Since her birth? Longer. And now for nothing but her death. You feel dizzy.

You recall a time when you would blame Eternia’s harsh winds on the crystals, swear on the fact that its cold bite came all the way from Ancheim. But as this vestal holds Edea's body, you understand that she carries something different with her. A warm breeze, a supportive gust for a ship’s sail, cool relief on a summer’s day. The wind holds your daughter as it always has. 

You have no doubt that she can be as fierce as a winter’s wind when she wants to - but what surprises you is that she _chooses_ not to be. How foolish you have been, to think that the vestal would carry a different magic than the one that sustains your wife. 

Your world seems to be collapsing around you. Your vision goes red. 

It was 19 years ago that your daughter was born. Her eyes were full of life. When she laughed, you cried, because her heartbeat was tiny but ever so fast, and you knew then that she would be strong. Her strength would be of heart, and it would kill her.

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY so i'm sorry cuz i know this fic is fuckign emo but i remember thinking one day like... what would braev even do if edea died in that fight? like, what would the sight of his sworn enemy holding his own daughter's body do to him? i was so interested in this disconnect between him and edea, and sort of how he seems like he'll just never change his mind early in the game, and the thought of him kind of witnessing how much agnès cares about her, making him realize how much he hasn't been there... man. also i wrote this like 5 years ago but only just got an ao3 so here we are. i'm watervestaal on tumblr but that's my bd blog and i'm not super active over there! but i will be posting this fic. if you want to reblog it :3  
> also yes i am gay and yes i do like the idea of agnès protecting edea via the wind her whole life thank you i will not be taking questions at this time   
> (but fr thanks for reading everyone ilu i miss the bravely fandom)


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